1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a dry etching method of dry-etching a Zn (zinc)-containing material such as ZnS (zinc sulfide) that is used in a luminescent layer of an EL (Electroluminescent) element or ZnO (zinc oxide) that is used as a transparent electrode thereof, and a manufacturing method of manufacturing the EL element by using the same.
2. Related Arts:
Conventionally, chemical dry etchings are performed by causing an etching gas to react with a material to be etched and thereby changing this material to be etched into a material of which boiling point is lower than that of the material to be etched and of which saturation vapor pressure is higher than that thereof.
Here, if as a material to be etched there is used a Zn-containing material such as ZnS used in the luminescent layer of the EL element, the use of an etching gas that is employed ordinarily in chemical etchings raises the problem that the reaction product has such a high boiling point that the etching action can not be performed easily. For example, when using Cl.sub.2 as the etching gas zinc chloride (ZnCl.sub.2) is produced as the reaction product, the boiling point of this material is 732.degree. C.